The Trenton Times published the following article on April 10, 2013. To read the full article click here.

Trenton Mayor Tony Mack ousts school board members

By Alex Zdan/The Times 
on April 10, 2013 at 7:30 AM, updated April 10, 2013 at 7:35 AM

TRENTON — Mayor Tony Mack has ousted the Trenton Board of Education’s president, declining to appoint him to a second, three-year term.

The Rev. Toby Sanders and former board President Nicola Tatum were replaced with the appointments of two new board members, who were sworn in yesterday by the mayor a month in advance of Sanders’ and Tatum’s terms expiring in May.

The relationship between Mack and Sanders has been strained, and the two men have not spoken in a year and a half, Sanders said yesterday. Sanders was notified of his removal in a one-sentence letter mailed to his home last week, which said his services were no longer required on the board.

“Honestly, it’s odd to me,” Sanders said of the letter yesterday. “It’s just odd to me and I’m trying to process it.”

Sanders was reluctant to criticize the mayor, preferring to praise his colleagues and the work they’ve done on the board during his two years as president. But he revealed what he believes is a fundamental difference in world view between himself and the mayor that’s affected their now-cool relationship.

While Mack and his administration fixate on a “cult of personality,” Sanders said, he and his colleagues operate on “competence and character.”

“These tensions have to do with what I would call a clash of leadership vision,” he said.
“You have to have the courage to make unpopular decisions at the same time they’re respecting the will of the majority,” he added.

“I would tell you frankly I would think he doesn’t understand that,” Sanders said of Mack.
Yesterday, Mack swore in new board members Patrice Daley and Roslyn Reaves-Council, according to his office. Sanders’ term does not expire until May 15, while Tatum’s ends on May 16, however.

“They probably did that unaware of that, because I’m still officially a board member,” said Tatum, who said she will attend the next board meeting. School board members are appointed by the mayor to serve three-year terms, with no mechanism in the city charter for dismissing or replacing a sitting member midterm.

The mayor’s office did not say which board members it expected to be present at the next regular meeting, scheduled for April 22. Requests for comment on the board changes were not returned by press time.

Tatum said she was planning on leaving when her term was up anyway.

“I have served two terms on the board — six years — so this is it for me,” she said.

Sanders was appointed by then-Mayor Douglas Palmer in May 2010, weeks before Mack took office. Mack has made a habit out of removing officials from positions they were appointed to under Palmer.

Sanders is a pastor at Beloved Community, teaches courses to incarcerated students and serves on the Children’s Futures board. Sanders has been board president for two years.

“I have sought to honor the elected officials, even when I had disagreements with them personally,” Sanders said. “The office of mayor is due honor.”

“I do not think that that respectfulness is being reciprocated,” he added.

Sanders enjoyed his time on the board and thinks that he and his colleagues made progress in improving the school district.

“It was an honor to serve on the school board,” Sanders said. “I have tried to do it with integrity, transparency and diligence.”

In the aftermath of the board vote approving current Superintendent Francisco Duran last May, apparent attempts by the mayor to get rid of school board members Marisol Ovalles and Denise Millington drove Sanders to seek legal advice from the state Department of Education. Ovalles and Millington had been sworn in by Mack for full terms not 24 hours before Ovalles’ board e-mail was cut off and her name temporarily removed from the district’s website.

Mack’s move was unsuccessful, though Ovalles resigned soon thereafter. Millington remains on the board, nearly a year later.

Sanders is not the only appointee to be abruptly pushed aside by Mack’s administration.

On her first go-round as deputy municipal clerk, former Councilwoman Cordelia Staton returned from lunch in Aug. 2010 to find a termination letter on her chair. Longtime Municipal Court Judge Louis Sancinito was replaced that same month with no notice the morning after another judge was sworn in, leading to hours of backlog in the court.

Sgt. Chris Doyle, Mack’s third acting police director, didn’t find out he was out of the job in October 2011 until Mack’s office issued a news release announcing his successor.

None of the city officials had received any word from Mack himself letting them go.

Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.